Volume 14: Responsibilities for Human and Animal Health
6. Animal feed
Introduction

6.1 The Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Order 1988 imposed a prohibition on the sale and supply for feeding to ruminants of any feedingstuff by a person who knew or had reason to suspect that ruminant-derived protein had been incorporated. However, such protein could still be incorporated in feed for non-ruminants. The 'ruminant feed ban' represented the primary control on the spread of the disease in cattle by preventing the recycling of theBSE agent in the ruminant feed chain on the assumption that meat and bone meal (MBM), a protein component of cattle feed, was the vector for transmission of the agent.

6.2 The ruminant feed ban was extended in September 1990 to prevent the inclusion in animal feeds of 'specified bovine offals' (SBOs); those bovine tissues thought most likely to carry the agent of BSE. This was a precaution against the transmission of BSE to other species. Both the ruminant feed ban and the ban on Specified Bovine Offal for animal consumption (the 'animal SBO ban') were introduced under the wide-ranging powers to deal with animal diseases provided by the Animal Health Act 1981. This chapter sets out those powers, so far as they related to the control of the production of feed stuffs, and describes the controls on the description, composition and fitness of feedstuffs provided for by the Agriculture Act 1970, and also controls on the incorporation of medicines in animal feed.

6.3 The gradual emergence of cases of BSE in animals born after the ruminant feed ban came into force raised questions about the degree to which full compliance with the ruminant and SBO bans had been achieved. As discussed in more detail in vol. 5: Animal Health, 1989-96, the occurrence of BSE in such animals was explained initially on the basis that existing stocks of ruminant feed containing contaminated MBM held on farms at the time that the ruminant feed ban was introduced had continued to be fed to cattle after the ban came into force. However, cases continued to occur in animals born a considerable time after the introduction of the ban, and investigations by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) suggested some failures to comply with both bans. It followed that some SBO was being rendered, and that the resulting MBM was being incorporated into feed for animals other than ruminants. It emerged that cross-contamination between ruminant feeds and non-ruminant feeds containing MBM was occurring in feedmills and possibly at storage facilities and on farms. For this reason, this chapter also considers industry codes of practice designed to reduce the potential for harmful cross-contamination.